*****
In the Light of Day
In the Bite of Winter
It was early morning in the town of Cave Hill, in east Tennessee located in Marshall County. Cave Hill was a small resort town located in the hills of the Appalachian Mountains in east Tennessee. It was about one hundred and eighty miles northeast of Knoxville and about thirty-eight miles from the Virginia State Line. People from all over went there to explore the caves and enjoy the beautiful waterfalls. The waterfalls enhanced the cave with some of the most beautiful scenery in the state. There were five big caves and several small ones scattered throughout the county. Spelunkers came from everywhere to explore the cave’s hidden treasures. The year was 1958. It had been snowing on and off for the last couple of days. Four inches of sleet and snow had already accumulated on the ground. The weatherman was predicting at least eight more inches before nightfall before there would be a break in the weather. The bite of winter had paid its toll upon the town. There had been snow on the ground since the last of October and it looked to be a long cold, snowy winter ahead. The air was so chilled with the bite of coldness it sent chills down to the bone.
It was about 10:30 in the morning when police Chief Johnny Sloan arrived home. It had been a long night at the station. He had been working on a drug and prostitution ring that was operating out of Knoxville with the vice squad and the TBI for about two weeks. They had busted several people already and still had some others to bust. They hoped to finish up the arrests in a few more days then things would settle back down; he hoped. When he arrived home, he checked his mail and headed inside his house. When he opened the front door, all was quiet. As he thumbed through his mail, he called out for his wife, Shirley. But, she didn’t answer. He figured she had gone out and wasn’t at home. When he pitched the mail onto the table next to the front door, he suddenly felt a cold draft in the house. He didn’t think much about it at first because it was cold outside. He grabbed the newspaper and lit up a cigarette to sit down and relax for a while. As he made his way over to the couch to sit down, the house felt even colder so he went over to check the gas heater. It was working and putting out heat. I wonder why it’s so cold in here, he thought. As he made his way in to the kitchen, he noticed the back door was open. When he went over to close it, he noticed the door had been kicked in. As he quickly looked about, he began to yell Shirley’s name but she didn’t answer. He ran through the house frantically looking for her. When he ran upstairs to the bedroom, he found her laying on the floor; she was dead.
“Oh, my God,” he cried out.
He ran over to her and noticed a bloody butcher knife next to her body. It looked like she had been stabbed several times. After getting over the initial shock of finding his wife’s body, he ran back downstairs and called for help. It only took a few minutes for the police and ambulance to arrive. Detective Brady Rogers and Detective Barry Kelly also arrived on the scene. When they got there, they found Chief Sloan knelt down beside the body. He was shocked and at a loss for words. As he rose up from beside her body, he broke down. Detective Rogers asked one of the officers to take him downstairs. As the detectives and officers worked the crime scene, the coroner and his assistant took the body downstairs, put it in the ambulance and drove away. Chief Sloan pulled himself together and began trying to put together what may have happened. Apparently, it wasn’t a robbery because Chief Sloan told the detectives, the best he could tell, nothing was missing. But, why and who could have done it was the million dollar question. Detective Kelly and a couple of the officers questioned some of the neighbors to see if they had seen or heard anything. The only person who said they saw anything was an elderly woman who lived across the street, Miss Mae.
“I thought I saw a man come out the front door around eight to nine o’clock and get into a car and leave,” she said.
“Did you recognize the man?” Detective Kelly asked.
“No,” she replied. “I think I have seen him over there several times before. But, I can’t describe him. My eyes aren’t as good as they used to be. I’m sorry I can’t remember what he looked like.”
“That’s quite all right, ma’am. We appreciate the information,” Detective Kelly replied.
Detective Rogers speculated the killer kicked the back door in, got a butcher knife from the kitchen, slipped upstairs to the bedroom where he found Mrs. Sloan, repeatedly stabbed her with the knife and left. Before the coroner left, he stated she was probably murdered around eight-thirty or nine o’clock. She had cut marks on her arms and hands from where she tried to fight off the killer. There were also several stab wounds in her chest and neck.
After they went over the crime scene, the officers left but the detectives stayed behind to talk with Chief Sloan.
“Do you have any idea who would want to kill your wife?” Detective Kelly asked.
“Yes, I do,” he replied. “I believe it was her boyfriend, Tommy Lee Lambert.”
“Why do you think that?” asked Detective Rogers.
Chief Sloan replied, “Shirley has been seeing him for quite a while now. We have been having some marital problems for the last couple of years. Well, ever since we lost our daughter, Penny, in the car wreck. Shirley could never get over it and constantly blamed me for it. She’s wanted a divorce for quite some time but I wouldn’t give her one. I wanted to work things out and I thought things were getting better. She told me she was going to stop seeing Tommy Lee and try to make our marriage work. I guess when she told him I wasn’t going to give her a divorce he figured he was never going to be able to have her all to himself and he wasn’t going to let her go. I believe that was his motive. We had an appointment with a marriage counselor this Friday and hoped we’d be able to work through our problems. I want you to bring him in for questioning and if he did this I want him put away for the rest of his life.”
“We’ll get to the bottom of this, Chief. You need to get some rest,” said Kelly.
“We’ll take care of this. Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll find him, Chief,” replied Rogers.
The detectives left and Chief Sloan watched as they got in the car and drove away. He closed the door, went back to the couch and laid down. His head was full of thoughts, especially about his daughter. If I hadn’t been drinking that night when I went to pick up Penny at her friend’s house, I wouldn’t have had that wreck. And, if I hadn’t been messing around with that other woman and was at home where I belonged, things may have been different, he said to himself. But, it is too late now.
He was never charged for his daughter’s death because of who he was. Plus, he was also best friends with the district attorney, Thomas Barns, and Judge David Turner. They tried to keep things hush-hush about the wreck. And, he and Shirley tried to keep their personal life discreet. But, people knew. Rumors spread quickly around the small town and politics carried a lot of weight.
Later that evening, he went back to the station; he had to get out of the house. He just couldn’t bear to stay there at home. He thought if he went back to work he could get things off his mind. When he got back to the station, he talked to detectives Rogers and Kelly. They had picked up Tommy Lee about an hour before he got there and brought him in for questioning. They were going to hold him until they could find out the truth about what happened.
Tommy Lee had a long criminal record. He had been in and out of jail most of his life. Tommy Lee was nineteen when he went to prison. He and his best friend, Chris, had been drinking one night when they accidently hit a boy on a bicycle on their way home from a party. The boy lived but was paralyzed the rest of his life. Tommy’s probation officer, James Thompson, lied at the time and claimed Tommy Lee was driving the car when it was actually Chris, the probation officer’s son; Chris was only sixteen at the time. Tommy was passed out in the passenger’s seat when the wreck happened. Tommy was sent to prison and Chris got probation. Tommy’s probation officer
lied on the stand by saying Tommy Lee was driving that night. The D.A. and the judge covered up the truth about the wreck because of their friendship with James Thompson who also paid off the police officers that worked the wreck so they would testify Tommy Lee was driving the night the boy was hit. Tommy Lee was sent to prison for aggravated vehicular homicide. He was sentenced to fifteen years at Mountain City State Penitentiary. He had served eight years of the fifteen year sentence when the officers who testified against him came forth with the truth that he was not driving the car that hit the little boy. He was then released. Tommy Lee was twenty-seven years old when he got out of prison. Tommy Lee had been out of prison for five years when he met Shirley in a bar one night while Chief Sloan was out of town which led to a one night stand and eventually it became a longtime affair. The chief, too, at the time was having affairs. His and Shirley’s marriage troubles began when he found out Shirley was having an affair with Tommy Lee. Especially the last year of their marriage when she started talking about leaving him. At first, he didn’t think too much about her affair with Tommy Lee; he knew he was just as guilty and besides Tommy Lee was nothing but a loser. He thought it would all blow over after a few months and that would be the end of it. But, little did he know, Shirley had fallen in love with Tommy Lee.
The next day, the detectives put Tommy Lee in a line up and brought Miss Mae in to see if she could identify him. She looked each one over very carefully. At first, she wasn’t for sure because of her eyes and she didn’t want to make a mistake. After a few minutes, she thought she recognized the man she had seen. She pointed to Tommy Lee and told the detectives she believed he was the one she saw leaving the house and had seen him there several times before.
“Are you sure that’s the man you saw leaving the house that morning?” questioned Rogers.
“Yes, I believe so,” she replied. “I’ve seen him before. I’m pretty sure he’s the one. He’s only there when her husband is gone.”
“Well, thank you, Miss Mae,” replied Kelly. “We will have someone take you back home.”
“Well, thank you, detective. I hope I have been some help.”
“You have been very helpful,” replied Rogers.
“You know, looking at them again,” she said as she stopped and looked back, “they all look familiar. But, I guess that couldn’t be,” she chuckled. “I hope I have picked the right one,” she said. “Yeah, I did. I’m sure I did.”
The detectives took Tommy Lee in the interrogation room and questioned him.
“Where were you yesterday morning around eight-thirty or nine o’clock?” asked Rogers.
Tommy Lee didn’t say anything.
“We have a witness that saw you leave Chief Sloan’s house around that time.”
“Yes, I was there that morning. Shirley called me to come over there because she wanted to tell me something. So, I stopped by for a few minutes. She told me she was leaving her husband and was going to file for a divorce. She wanted me to move away with her and start a new life. And, she also told me she was pregnant with my child. I asked her how she knew the child was mine. Her response was that women have their way of knowing.”
“Then what happened?” asked Rogers.
“I told her to get her things together and I would come back to get her and we would leave. Then I left. She was alive when I left.
“Are you sure she was alive when you left?” questioned Kelly.
“I didn’t kill her,” he cried out. “I loved her and she was pregnant with my child.”
“Where did you go when you left?” spoke up Kelly.
“I went home to get some things together,” he replied. “When I came back to get her, the police was there. I knew something bad had happened but I didn’t know what. So, I just drove on by. Later on that day, I heard she had been murdered. I didn’t kill her,” he stated. “I loved her and she loved me. You have to believe me. My God, she was pregnant with my child.”
Then, suddenly without warning, Chief Sloan stormed in the room, grabbed a hold of Tommy Lee and threw him up against the wall. Detectives Rogers and Kelly quickly grabbed the chief and pulled him off Tommy Lee. As they held the chief back, he cussed and spit on Tommy Lee.
“You’re a loser, Tommy Lee, and you’ll never be any good. I’m going to put you away for the murder of my wife. You’ll never see the light of day again.”
“Calm down, Chief. Let us handle this,” Rogers said as he led him to the door.
Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it, Chief,” said Kelly.
“We’ll get to the bottom of it,” Rogers stated. “You need to leave and let us handle it.”
Once they were finally able to get the chief to calm down and leave the room, they asked Tommy Lee a few more questions and then told him he was free to go but not to leave town.
A couple of days later, the detectives discussed the case. Things didn’t seem hardly right to them. Miss Mae had picked Tommy Lee out of the line up as the man leaving the house at the time of the crime. However, the lab report confirmed Tommy Lee’s prints weren’t on the murder weapon.
Something about everything just doesn’t feel right,” said Rogers.
“Do you think Tommy Lee is telling the truth?” asked Kelly.
“I don’t know,” replied Rogers. “What do you think?”
“I’m not really sure,” said Kelly. “But, who could have done it, the chief.”
“Maybe; the thought has crossed my mind,” replied Rogers.
Later on that day, they went downtown to the Oasis Bar to ask around about Tommy Lee and Shirley. They got a tip from a woman at the bar. She told them Tommy Lee and Shirley got in to a heated argument about a week ago. She told the detectives Tommy Lee threated to kill Shirley because if he couldn’t have her no one else would. Within the next couple of days she was dead. When the detectives got back to the station, the chief called them into his office to see how the investigation was going. They told him but Chief Sloan didn’t buy it.
“What did Tommy Lee tell you?” he asked.
“He said Shirley wanted to move away with him because she was pregnant with his child,” stated Rogers.
“That’s a lie,” the chief exclaimed. “He killed her because we were working things out. She was going to break it off with him; she didn’t want to see him anymore. I know because she told me. That’s the reason he killed her. She wanted to stay with me.”
The detectives were baffled. It was the chief’s word against Tommy Lee’s.
“The baby was not Tommy Lee’s. Shirley told me the baby was mine. There’s no question about it; I was the father.”
“Chief, the only thing we have on Tommy Lee is one person who saw him coming out of your house around the time the murder was committed and one who overheard an argument between him and Shirley where he threatened to kill her,” replied Kelly.
“All we have is circumstantial evidence,” said Rogers.
“I think it’s enough to charge him,” Chief Sloan said. “Let’s charge him and let his defense find a way to prove his innocence.”
“Maybe you should talk to the D.A. first,” insisted Kelly.
“I’ll do that,” he replied.
After the detectives left the chief’s office, he immediately contacted the D.A. With an eyewitness placing Tommy Lee at the scene of the crime around the time of the murder, a witness who heard him threaten to kill her and a possible motive, the D.A. agreed to charge him. The D.A. believed he could persuade a jury to find him guilty of Shirley’s murder and that of her unborn child.
Tommy Lee was picked up and brought back to the interrogation room but this time the D.A. was also there. The D.A. offered him a plea bargain, life without parole or a lesser charge of twenty-five to thirty years and parole at thirty percent. At first, he didn’t say anything because he realized he was being railroaded and he was going back to prison one way or another. So, he took the lesser charg
e. He knew he wouldn’t have a fighting chance in court. He figured after he went to prison, he could possibly get a lawyer to fight his case. It was a slim chance but the only chance he had. He was booked and sent to Mountain City State Prison. He was thirty-eight when he went back to prison.
As the years passed, Tommy Lee tried several times to get a lawyer to take his case but things didn’t work out. There was so much politics involved and he finally gave up hope. Cave Hill didn’t change much over the years. Chief Sloan finally retired and moved on with his life. He took up flying as a hobby and spent a lot of time flying his plane. He had drank so much through the years he got cirrhosis of the liver and the doctors only gave him so long to live. While he prison, Tommy Lee found the Lord and became a model prisoner. He had Bible studies with other inmates and the Lord used him to help lead others to the Lord. His hard work and devotion to the Lord finally paid off. He finally got a pardon from the governor and was released from prison on a medical charge. He had cancer and only a few years left to live. When he got out of prison, he moved up to the mountain where he became a recluse and spent time with the Lord. Tommy Lee had been out of prison three years and he knew his time was drawing near.
In the winter of 1965, a bad snowstorm hit as Sloan was flying over the mountain. As he tried to make it through the storm, he started having engine trouble. Out of his side window, he could see flames coming out of his left engine and clouds of black smoke. He frantically looked for a place to land in the rugged terrain. Finally, he spotted a small field and tried to send out a distress signal but his radio was out. All he could hear was static. Carefully, he eased the plane down toward the field trying not to crash. The wheels of the plane touched down and broke off which caused the plane to slide in on its belly. He braced himself as the plane flipped end over end. The right wing broke off right before the plane crashed in to a tree. He was pinned in the wreckage and couldn’t move; the plane burst out in to flames. It so happened, Tommy Lee was close by and saw the plane going down. When he got to the crash site, he found Sloan pinned in the wreckage. Quickly, he pulled him out and drug to safety before the plane exploded. At first, he didn’t know who the man was and Sloan didn’t recognize him since they had both changed over the years. Tommy Lee had gained weight, he had long white hair and had grown a long white beard. Sloan had gained weight, too, mostly in his belly, and was bald with a shadow of a beard. Tommy Lee took him back to his cabin to help him. The storm raged as they fought their way back to the cabin which was not far from the crash site. As the days passed, Tommy Lee nursed Sloan back to health. He remembered who Sloan was but didn’t tell him. Sloan still didn’t recognize Tommy Lee. Tommy Lee thought about how wrong Sloan had done him. At first, he was angry but only for a few minutes. Tommy Lee forgave him just as the Lord had forgiven him. He believed everyone had done wrong things in life that can’t be undone. He knew nothing would ever change what happened years ago. He had the Lord and that was all that mattered to him. And, Sloan would have to work things out with the Lord himself. Tommy Lee talked to Sloan about the Lord and tried to help him but Sloan had no time for it. Sloan was bitter and filled with hate; he didn’t want to hear about the Lord. He blamed everyone else for the things that happened to him in his life. Most of all, he blamed the Lord. It took Sloan about a month to get better. By that time, the weather had improved enough for Tommy Lee to take Sloan back to Cave Hill. A year later, Sloan died never knowing it was Tommy Lee who helped him. About six months after that, Tommy Lee died. They were both buried in Cave Hill’s cemetery, not too far apart from each other. The truth of Shirley’s murder went to the grave with them.